Loss of control and speed

Athlete pitching in a very competitive league. Had 10 or more strikeouts 70% of the time during the summer. Good rise and drop ball. During championship finals, uses same routine for warmup with great control/stuff/speed as usual. In the game, has significant loss in speed and pitches hardly break. Feels arm-body progression points out of sync. Next game, same thing, great control/feeling in warmup but on the mound, sync is way off. Possible cause?

Super Moderator

Hal, the possibility you mentioned would be one of the more common ones. In this case though, it was a matter of getting into a bad habit of stepping forward with the pivot foot during the backswing while warming up.